RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE

Me too

I have a few instances of lead singer syndrome . Probabky the one which stood out most ; 4 of us form a new band from scratch through an ad . None of us knew the other etc I had to up my game from basic hobbyist to regular gigging semi pro ( amateur ?) . Drummer was the easiest and most straightforward to ger on with . Guitarist was the band leader ,who often gave me a hard time . Fair enough , I was lacking confidence and faced up to everything while improving albeit very slowly .. However, the singer who was half Irish and half American and quite well off , was full of 'all the talk, but not the walk' . He used to be full of a multitude of ideas , PowerPoint presentations and trying to organise everything with military precision. He even had a fender guitar which he kept under his bed , as ' jimi Hendrix was the best player ever' . I had my Les Dawson moments , but he just could not play it and we all felt sorry for him. He was a lovely bloke , but didn't seem to understand the reality of real life, and why I used to get up at 5am to work . Yes really. He was Harvard educated . He had all these ideas, but he kept saying ," sorry can't make it as I have to go over to Belfast urgently " / Sorry got to shoot off to Boston " . We were all getting frustrated , but wanted to keep pushing for the first eventual gig to see what's what . When we actually did the first gig at the Grey Horse in Kingston , the drummer arrived late and started moaning to the sound guy about the PA . I smoothed that over somehow . Me and the guitarist despite him wondering if I'd be any good , were level headed. The singer on the other hand , was so out of sync with everything and was very nervous rushing everything like Peter o 'Sullivan. Sweating and sometimes stammering , he was shall we say ..poor 😮‍💨🙂 The guitarist said I held it all together . When we had our next rehearsal , singer told us he had to go away again . Drummer quit by email. Singer sent an email to us calling guitarist so many unrepeatable names . In the end , the drummer had faith in me and we restructured a better band ..with better singers 🙂 I managed to up my game very soon after me and the drummer gelled 😬

Thanks for all your help . I’ll leave it as is , as I have other basses in standard tuning . I did have a feeling about the nut needing replacing. I’ve enclosed a couple of pics of the bass in question. Well, some of it 😬

Plodigy, shep seven , take phat , Leann limes

Just curious at this stage. I got one of my basses set up by a tech a while back , and he did tell me it was a challenge to do so. I will probably leave it tbh , but how difficult is it to adjust th3 setting back to EADG ? It has the recommended strings for BEAD tuning , which were new when given to tech to do the alteration. Thanks in advance .

Celtic Frose , Soxx gang , calking heads Hanoi socks

Lemonbelly , ting kings , Hannibal corpse, rot chocolate , Rick ashley

Perry homo , Andy walliams, Tony Bonnett, Jim greeves, Katsey Klein

The four cops , jelly savallas , Ellkie crooks , Desmond pekker , fudge dread ( dred ?)

I used to play most of my gigs without effects . When I got more confident ( and the songs required effects) I used a Zoom B2 1u All good for a time , until the unit decided what sounds should be played , and not what I selected. A tad embarrassing . In answer to the question , a Digitech Bass Synth Wah would be my choice . That should also leave enough change to get pleasantly sozzled ..

A bass player in a friends band used one of these in his originals band . I must say, that he used this in spectacular fashion, more or less changing effec5s for each song . Probabky the best sound from a bass player in a pub band I've seen . . Playing in an almost empty venue may have helped ..

Krankie goes to Hollywood

Peach Boys , loving colour , cheap truck , shitesnake , tangerine cream

Carlock, fizzy Borden , petal church, bio, Heaven and jell, Iran maiden , Fido ,pillage people , Toney M

Atomic Booster , spray, slack sabbath, roundgarden, benpole Tudor , bun lovin criminals ..

Thanks again . I remember somewhere you saying that you went all into software. I admire you for doing that. I've browsed various forums about the subject , hardware v software etc . With all the apps I have on iPad , it's something I do wonder if I'll do it one day . I doubt if I'll do it , as I'm more of a plug 'n' play kind of guy . I used to tend to look at recording as irritating and taking the joy out of something but now am trying to just get something half decent for short soundcloud sounds . Not exactly mutt lange 😬 I think I will get Logic in the not too distant , as you say it's the next step from GarageBand . Alchemy is cool , and I have launchpad mini . Seems a no brainier ..

Thanks @BigRedX I have a 2017 16 gb iMac . I don't know whether to upgrade to M1 MacBook or Mac mini . I do need another external hard drive should it be better to keep it . I use GarageBand , but still find Reason 12 a challenge , and I have ableton live lite ( free version ) . I need to put more effort into learning these properly . I have an iPad mini 6 also, but I tend to just use random apps into the mixer . I understand that straight bass direct signal without effects is the way to go . Is there much if any difference ,of plugging bass straight into input socket and using the x l r input from Zoom B3? It does seem that in the bigger picture that I do have lots of the same formulas of sound in the effects units so to speak. Wah/ fuzz/ chorus etc. :The main go to effects that I do use mostly I are the digitech bass-synth-wah and the Digitech Bass whammy . The Boss Me8-b has a distinct analogue sound but the synth effect is the best thing there. Maybe it's time to sell a few of those effects and the Boss micro cube amp 🤔 I got a bit obsessed about having 'toys' for the bass for home use , but having a couple of synths I seem to be more into them now . I have seen various people on you tube using effects with synths . Just wondering if I did that, would I be better off using synths direct into mixer instead ? It does sound like I could do a lot more by using the effects in Reason . Anymore help,and pointers appreciated 😬

Feline Dion , Brotherhood of Dan , now order, Mercyful Kate, Hoe satriani , Diamond Dead, fudgie, Cartridge family , Jackson dive ..

Can't do you tube links at the moment , but my immediate 3; Scorpions still loving you , Tangerine Dream love on a real train and Anthrax Ballad ..😬

Oops ! One other thing to mention ; bass combo is stereo , as is the boss me 8b multi effects unit 😬

While stumbling across the many empty boxes of various music manufacturers in my spare bedroom of my small flat ( plus the multitude of cables ), I have been wondering do I need all of the effects that I have . Plus I have been finally trying to record stuff in a more polished fashion. I seem to be unusually getting more patient with age with my persistence . However, I would like some guidance please regarding the placement of effects in my behringer usb mixer. The questions I have are probably basic ; Regarding recording bass : do I place effects into separate effects channel or can I place them like when gigging- bass/ effect/input i do have a zoom B3 which i connect to xlr via x l r cable , so that’s straightforward enough. However, I do have an old Boss ME8B which I may want to use on occasion. I still have a Roland Bass Cube RX which has a headphone/ mixer output. Where would that go? Shoukd I still keep it , as I also have cheap behringer monitors. I also have lots of mini guitar effects pedals etc and wondering if they would be surplus to requirements. my fave pedals ( bass/ synth / wah and bass whammy) will stay. Regarding using effects with moogs : could I plug them into the B3 or Boss me8b? What I’m trying to do here, is to stop pulling plugs out all the time etc and have everything in place as much as I can. All the gear and no idea Thanks in advance 😬